Henry Nicholas: Difference between revisions

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'''Henry Nicholas''' (or '''Hendrik Niclaes''', '''Heinrich Niclaes''') (c. 1501 - c. 1580) was the founder of the mystical Christian [[sect]] "[[Familists|Family of Love]]".

==Life==

He was born in 1501 or 1502, at [[Münster]], where he was married and was a prosperous merchant.

As a boy he was subject to visions, and at the age of twenty-seven charges of [[heresy]] led to his imprisonment. About 1530 he removed with his family to [[Amsterdam]], where he was again imprisoned on a charge of complicity in the [[Munster Rebellion|Munster revolution]] of 1534-1535. About 1539 he experienced a call to found his "Familia Caritatis." Moving to [[Emden]], he lived there and prospered in business for twenty years, though he travelled with commercial as well as missionary objects to the Netherlands, England and elsewhere.

Nicholas worked through powerful friends to bring about change: [[Christopher Plantin]], Abraham Ortel who called himself [[Ortelius]], and the genre painter and political cartoonist Pieter [[Brueghel the Elder]]. Niclaes sought to bring about a wider religious reformation in Europe through his [[Family of Love]]. His activities in England contributed to the ''[[Puritan]]'' controversies which formed the backdrop of the reign of [[Queen Elizabeth I]] of England.

The date of his sojourn in England has been placed as early as 1552 and as late as 1569. In 1579 he was living at [[Cologne]], where probably he died a year or two later. His doctrines seem to have been derived largely from the Dutch [[Anabaptist]] [[David Joris]], who died in 1556.

For twenty years (1540-1560) [[Emden]] was Nicholas' headquarters, with visits to [[England]] in 1552 or 1553.

==Work==

To this period at Emden belong most of his writings. His primary work was ''Den Spegel der Gherechticheit dorch den Geist der Liefden unde den vergodeden Menscit I-IN. uth de hernmelisc tie Warheit betuget''. It appeared in an English form with the authors revision, as ''An introduction to the holy Understanding of the Glasse of Righteousness'' (1575?; reprinted in 1649). The list of Nicholas' works occupies nearly six columns in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]''. See also [[Ernest Belfort Bax]], ''Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists'', pp. 327-380 (1903); and [[John Strype]]'s ''Works, General Index''.

He signed his works with his initials "H.N.", which coincidently also stood for ''Homo Novus'', "new man", which became a sort of call sign for the movement.

== See also ==
* [[Family of Love]]

== References ==
{{1911}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Henry}}
[[Category:1500s births]]
[[Category:1580s deaths]]
[[Category:Tudor people]]
[[Category:German Anabaptists]]

[[de:Heinrich Niclaes]]
[[eo:Henriko Niklaes]]

Revision as of 00:43, 21 June 2010

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